Privacy policy

Who we are

Financial Aims Ltd is the data controller for the personal information we hold about you. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with and your rights.

• Address: The Coach House, 66-70 Bourne Road, Bexley, Kent DA5 1LU
• Registered office: The Old Barn, Off Wood Street, Swanley Village, Swanley, Kent BR8 7PA. Registered in England No. 04565352
• Telephone: 0203 947 6801
• Data protection contact: Ian Stedman, [email protected]
• Regulation: authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, register number 502969
• ICO registration number: Z1875347

Information we collect

We collect information you give us when you contact us, complete our fact find or risk questionnaire, or become a client. We also receive information from product providers, platforms and your employer's pension scheme with your authority.

• Identity and contact details: name, date of birth, address, telephone, email, National Insurance number, nationality and identity documents
• Family details: marital status, and the names and dates of birth of your dependants
• Financial details: income, expenditure, assets, liabilities, pensions, savings, investments and protection policies
• Employment details: occupation, employer and pension contributions
• Attitude to risk: your investment experience, attitude to risk and capacity for loss
• Health and personal circumstances: health conditions, smoker status and circumstances that may make you vulnerable. This is special category data and we treat it with extra care.
• Website use: cookies and usage information when you visit this website

When you give us information about another person, such as your partner or children, please make sure they are happy for you to do so.

How we use your information and why

We only use your information where the law allows us to.

You can withdraw your consent to us using health information at any time. If you do, we may not be able to advise you on some products, such as life cover or income protection.

We also share your information with our locum adviser and shared administration team, as set out in section 5. We do this on the basis of our legitimate interest in making sure your affairs are always looked after.

Our use of artificial intelligence

We use carefully selected artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help us work efficiently and accurately. The AI tools we currently use are:

• Claude, provided by Anthropic
• Microsoft Copilot, provided by Microsoft as part of our Microsoft 365 business account

These tools help us to read and organise documents you or your product providers send us, record your details and policy information, and prepare first drafts of reports, letters and reviews. This may include any of the information described in this policy, including health information where you have given it to us.

AI tools support our work; they do not replace your adviser. Every recommendation is made by a qualified Financial Aims adviser, and every report or letter is checked by us before it is sent to you.

Both tools are provided under business agreements that require the provider to keep your information confidential and secure, to process it only on our instructions, and not to use it to train their AI models. Access is limited to Financial Aims staff who need it to look after your affairs.

If you have any questions about how we use AI with your information, please contact us using the details above.

Who we share it with

We only share your information where needed to advise you, arrange products or meet our legal duties:

• Product providers, insurers, pension schemes, platforms and lenders
• Identity verification, credit reference and fraud prevention agencies
• Our compliance support, auditors and professional advisers
• IT, cloud storage and back-office system suppliers who process data on our behalf, including Microsoft (for our email, document storage, client records and Microsoft Copilot) and Anthropic (for Claude). They act as our data processors and may only use your information as we instruct.
• Regulators, the Financial Ombudsman Service and law enforcement where required by law
• Anyone you ask us to deal with, such as your accountant, solicitor or a named family member

We will never sell your information or share it with companies outside our organisation for their marketing.

Our locum adviser. We have a reciprocal arrangement with another FCA-authorised firm that shares our office, so your affairs are looked after if your adviser is unavailable, for example through holiday, illness or a longer-term absence. The locum adviser can access your records only to provide this service, and must keep them confidential. If your adviser dies or can no longer work, the locum adviser will help look after you while arrangements are made for your future service.

Shared administration team. Our administration team also supports that firm. They can access your records only to look after your affairs, and follow the same confidentiality rules as our own staff.

Mortgage adviser. If you need mortgage advice, we will, with your agreement, refer you to the qualified mortgage adviser we work with and share the information they need.

Storage, security and how long we keep it

We keep your information on secure systems, including Microsoft 365, with access limited to staff, our shared administration team and, when needed, our locum adviser.

We keep client records for as long as we need them to advise you and to meet regulatory rules:

These are the minimum periods set by the Financial Conduct Authority and money laundering regulations. We may keep records longer where we need them to deal with a later claim or complaint. After that we delete or securely destroy it.

Transfers outside the UK

Some of our technology providers, including Anthropic and Microsoft, may process your information outside the UK, including in the European Economic Area and the United States. Where this happens, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place as required by UK data protection law, such as UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.

Automated decision-making

We do not carry out automated decision-making, including profiling, that has legal or similarly significant effects on you. Where we use AI tools, a member of our team reviews the output and makes any decisions.

Your rights

You can ask us, free of charge, to:

• Give you a copy of the information we hold about you
• Correct information that is wrong or incomplete
• Delete your information, where we are not required to keep it
• Restrict or object to how we use it
• Pass your information to another firm in a usable format
• Stop using your health information or sending you marketing, by withdrawing your consent

Contact Ian Stedman on 0203 947 6801 or [email protected]. We will reply within one month.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, please tell us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Cookies and other websites

This website uses cookies to understand how visitors use it. You can set your browser to refuse cookies, though some features may not work. See www.aboutcookies.org for how. Links to other websites are covered by those websites' own privacy policies.

Changes to this policy

We review this policy regularly and post any changes on this page. Last updated: 11.11.2026.